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The BA (Hons) Acting programme is a leading actor training based in the heart of Manchester.
Led by a team of specialist and highly experienced directors, teachers and practitioners, the BA (Hons) Acting course at Manchester School of Theatre has an outstanding reputation for training actors with the skills necessary for a successful career in film, television, radio and stage.
We are looking for your imagination, empathy, curiosity, passion and wonder.
We are looking for expressive people who are energetic, dynamic and driven to tell stories.
We will nurture your ability, teach you your craft and encourage you on the path to creative excellence.
We encourage anyone with a passion for and commitment to acting to apply and we are dedicated to making our training as widely accessi...
3 years full-time
The first two years of this course are all about training. The third year is industry facing, preparing and readying our actors for the profession. The first year is entirely process driven with little emphasis on performing. The second year introduces elements of performance through workshops and culminates in a black box production readying the students for the third year.
In the first year of your training you will explore your voice, your body and your self. You will experience the ensemble as a tangible, meaningful presence and you will begin the rudiments of the actor’s craft, working with key principles derived in part from the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen and Michael Chekhov. You will learn how to read a play and turn dried ink into character and action. You will learn the rudiments of working on camera and have several opportunities to experience truthful self and the transformation into a present character. You will start to apply what you have learned in a series of scene studies working with both contemporary and European Naturalism texts. By the end of your first year you will have experienced using self as the basis of character and have established a personal, structured process to apply to rehearsal.
Students are allocated to a pathway according to their programme to introduce ideas relevant to their studies. The unit introduces some of the broad over-arching themes and concepts – historical, cultural, social, political, and economic – that affect and inform the production of art, design and/or craft.
In this unit, students will explore and put into practice the work they’ve learnt so far through the rehearsal of scenes from a play by the European Naturalists, for example Chekhov or Ibsen or may even be stretched to include other naturalistic writers, such as Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansbury, August Wilson or JB Priestley where appropriate. Students will engage with the sensual use of language as a means of creative expression. Rehearsals will foster a practice that demands research and observation, a willingness to experiment, and a confident integration of movement, voice and acting classes in the creation of character, relationship and given circumstances.
In this unit, students will begin to explore the work they have been learning in their acting classes through the rehearsal of a scene taken from a piece of contemporary realism, for example Simon Stephens, Leo Butler, Joe Penhall, Dennis Kelly, Roy Williams, Moira Buffini amongst others. The assessment will be formative and will include the presentation of a workbook journal, to provide context and a focal point to the student’s journey through the work. Students will be encouraged to work towards an increasingly secure application of the processes and methodologies to which they have been introduced in earlier stages of the course and to achieve convincing and appropriate character transformations, relationships and playable objectives.
This unit builds on the work of the first term and complements the Rehearsal Project 1: Contemporary Realism. In this unit, students will continue to develop the principles of the actor training with a transition of emphasis from notions of self to playing character. Students will work with improvisation, psychological gestures, as well as exercises based on the work of Uta Hagen, Stanislavsky and Michael Chekhov. Students will also be introduced to and familiarised with acting in front of the camera.
In this foundational movement module, students will develop core competencies in movement and embodiment while beginning to understand their unique physical acting process. The focus is on fostering presence, intentionality, and awareness of how the body and movement inform character, storytelling, and the craft of acting.
This unit establishes principles that help the student experience the breath in two ways: as an impulsive, natural response to a stimulus, a need to express and communicate freely, without tension or over-control; and as a dynamic, living actor’s resource that supports the voice physically, and that carries the voice’s expressivity. Taking methodologies and pedagogies from Kristin Linklater and Patsy Rodenburg, the unit encourages students to reassess habitual usage and to lay the foundation of new habits which will build released, supported, expressive voices that respond to imagination and creative impulse.
In this unit you will begin to work on the foundations upon which the training is based: you will apply imagination, curiosity and energy to free yourself from habit and to experience working with openness, impulse and sensation. Throughout this work you be exploring notions of self. Part of this unit will involve working as a full cohort, experiencing through song and movement, the physical, spiritual and psychic demands of the ensemble. In parallel with this, you will work through a series of Stanislavsky and Hagen based acting exercises, to set up the fundamental principles of the training, including playing from impulse, sustaining objectives, generating characteristics and being a sensuous human being in the space.
This unit is delivered and assessed by individual programmes and relate directly to students’ personal practice and the contexts that inform making in professional art, design and/or craft practices. The unit asks students to begin to form a critical understanding of their own practice.
In the second year of your training, you will consolidate and develop what you have learned in the first year. You will work have considerably more experience in front of the camera as well as behind the mic. You will work with heightened stakes, intense feeling and poetic speech through your Shakespeare project and you will have further classes in singing, combat, acting for camera, improvisation, poetry, as well as deeper and more sustained scene studies in which to develop your process and hone your craft.
Students will integrate more advanced movement practices to build their repertoire, applying their learning to characters, scenes, and theatrical productions.
This unit is designed to address the particular needs of a year group and involves the rehearsal and presentation of a classical or contemporary theatre text. It is a bridge to the third year and an opportunity for students to present a number of performances in a black box studio theatre to a public or semi-public audience. It will provide students with an experience of performing a role more than once or twice and will enable students to reinforce their established working methodology. There will be a possibility of taking this project on a local tour of schools.
Building on the work from term 1, students will look at development of character for screen work. Through workshopping and improvisation they will create their own characters and then lead to creating scenes for those characters to work with. The training shifts more towards preparing the actor for professional industry standards and challenges and students will explore what they as actors need to bring in order to be ready to film, how to manage a character’s journey whilst working out of sequence and in a non linear pattern and how to sustain a character’s living, breathing inner life in a pressurised filming environment.
In this unit students will engage with the practical, emotional and technical demands of Shakespeare’s plays. They will learn how to speak verse, work with imagery and metaphor and apply what they have learnt in the Actor’s Craft throughout the first year to complex text. Students will work in a rehearsal environment on a cut down version of a Shakespeare play and explore the psychological and spiritual dynamics of his characters and their relationships. Emphasis will be on assimilation of technique, heightened language and extreme character objectives. The work of this unit will be deftly supported by the work in other classes including voice and movement.
This unit builds on poetry work introduced in the first year. Having been encouraged to explore physical, instinctive and creative approaches to consonant, vowel, syllable, word and thought, students’ understanding is broadened out to the Shakespearean sonnets, where they respond to challenges of verse structure, including meter, rhyme, enjambment and caesura. Drawing on work from practitioners such as Linklater and Patrick Tucker, the unit aligns with other principles of voice work to build a robust, creative discipline that enables the actor’s speech to become varied and expressive in response to ever more complex and heightened impulses, thence to foster a growing ability to approach any text with confidence and creativity.
In this unit, students will apply their craft and experience to the demands of acting for screen and television in a rigorous and detailed way. Following on from the first year introduction to acting for camera, students will work with experienced professionals with ongoing experience at a high level of the industry to learn a variety of techniques, experience being in front of the camera, critically evaluating the work as well as rehearsing scenes from extant television and film scripts.
For ‘Contextualising Practice 2: Critical Analysis A’, students can choose to study up to two thematic sub-units to develop their contextual studies in new directions. The CP2 Critical Analysis units encourage students to develop their critical analysis skills gained in Level 4 to further investigate the broad over-arching themes and concepts – historical, cultural, social, political, and economic – that affect and inform the production of art, design and/or craft.
Your final year is very much about preparing for and engaging with the profession. You will work with professional directors on at least one public performance per term. You will have workshops and talks from practitioners and professionals including successful directors of stage and screen, agents, producers, casting directors, artistic directors and many more. You will have the opportunity to audition for the various awards and bursaries, including the Sam Wannamaker Festival, the Carleton Hobbs Bursary Award (which we have won and come runner up in several times in recent years) the RSC weekend and many more. You will receive advice on auditions and self-tapes culminating in a series of mock auditions. You will also take part in the annual Showcase, which will be at our new theatre in Manchester and in a West End theatre in London.
This unit introduces students to the demands of public performance and the need to develop their work in a context that requires high levels of discipline, imagination and professionalism. Rehearsals will operate in exactly the same manner as they would in the profession: each play will rehearse full-time for 4 weeks and perform for an extended period over one or two weeks. Students work alongside a team that includes a production manager, wardrobe supervisor, stage manager, professional designers, lighting designers and other technical staff. Each production is fully realised and performed in the new Theatre before a paying audience and invited guests from the profession.
This unit provides further opportunities for students to develop their work in front of a public audience. Play choices tend to be more ensemble in nature and this challenges the students to collaborate in the telling of a story and to call on the ensemble skills of the first year. Each play rehearses on a full-time basis for 4 weeks and performs over one week. Each production is fully realised and performed in the Theatre before a paying audience and invited guests from the profession.
In this unit, students will create a piece of work, which may involve devising, directing, writing or choreographing a piece of theatre, tv, radio or film – a project that will involve actors but in which the student themselves is unlikely to act. They will be supervised by a member of staff but the emphasis will be on independent study and rehearsals. Supervisors will expect to be regularly included on the development of the work and invited in to rehearsals.
This unit supports students in their work towards the production of audio and visual recordings, which form a major part of their portfolio as professional actors. Upon completion of the unit students will have demonstrated their skills and ambitions towards future employability through their technical discipline, imagination and professionalism in formats appropriate to their future career plans.
Whether you’ve already made your decision about what you want to study, or you’re just considering your options, there are lots of ways you can meet us and find out more about student life at Manchester Met.
We offer:
Your studies are supported by a department of committed and enthusiastic teachers and researchers, experts in their chosen field.
We often link up with external professionals too, helping to enhance your learning and build valuable connections to the working world.
These typical entry requirements may be subject to change for the 2025/26 academic year. Please check back for further details.
GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent
Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points
UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer
IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104-112 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered.
A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement.
AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications.
Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course
GCSE grade C/4 in English Language or equivalent, e.g. Pass in Level 2 Functional Skills English
Please note the University does not accept deferred applications or advanced entry applications for this course
Audition required. The course is highly competitive and you may be called back to a second or even third audition. Further details
GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent
Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points
UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer
IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104-112 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered.
A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement.
AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications.
Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course
There’s further information for international students on our international website if you’re applying with non-UK qualifications.
Please note the University does not accept deferred applications or advanced entry applications for this course
Audition required. The course is highly competitive and you may be called back to a second or even third audition. Further details
Tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are still being finalised for all courses. You can find information on 2024/25 standard undergraduate fees for UK/Channel Islands and EU/Non-EU international students. All fees stated may be subject to change for the 2025/26 academic year.
Compulsory estimate: £325
Optional estimate: £250
Optional estimate: £123
Compulsory estimate: £150
Find out more about financing your studies and whether you may qualify for one of our bursaries and scholarships
Money MattersFormer students who have gone on to highly successful careers in film, television and theatre and graduates include Sarah Amankwah, Zawe Ashton, Zora Bishop, John Bradley, George Bukhari, Amanda Burton Steve Coogan, Ashley Gerlach, Richard Griffiths, Graeme Hawley, Zoe Henry, Bernard Hill, Noreen Kershaw, Elliot Knight, Adam Kotz, Nathan McMullen, Yasmin Mwanza, David Threlfall, John Thomson, Annie Wallace, Julie Walters CBE, Assad Zaman.
You can apply for this course for 2025/26 entry once UCAS applications open in autumn.
Visit UCAS for further details, including deadlines.
Get advice and support on making a successful application.
You can review our current terms and conditions before you make your application. If you are successful with your application, we will send you up to date information alongside your offer letter.
Programme review
Our programmes undergo an annual review and major review (normally
at 6 year intervals) to ensure an up-to-date curriculum supported by the
latest online learning technology. For further information on when we
may make changes to our programmes, please see the changes section of our
terms and conditions.
Important notice
This online prospectus provides an overview of our programmes of study
and the University. We regularly update our online prospectus so that
our published course information is accurate. Please check back to the
online prospectus before making an application to us to access the most
up to date information for your chosen course of study.
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in England. More information on the role of the OfS and its regulatory
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officeforstudents.org.uk.
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